


the stars of his eyes

by nigoi



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Car Accidents, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Ouma not Oma, Reincarnation, Self-Indulgent, Trans Female Character, Transphobic Relative, Well - Freeform, technically not saihara but, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 07:36:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12907224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigoi/pseuds/nigoi
Summary: Shuichi Saihara is a weirdo and loves Ouma.





	the stars of his eyes

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from this:  
> "The stars twinkled  
> in his eyes,  
> and the Sun itself  
> warmed his smile.  
> I knew I might burn.  
> But  
> I just  
> had  
> to inch  
> a  
> little
> 
> closer."

“She’s a beautiful baby, we’ll call her—”

-

Mommy and Daddy make her go to school. She’s really excited; her Mommy will be her teacher!

-

“Are you okay, Mommy? …Mommy?”

-

Mommy is gone and Daddy is very, very sad.

-

She really doesn’t like school. It reminds her of Mommy.

-

She likes a boy. He is the most handsome person she’s ever seen.

-

“I love you.”

-

They kissed!

-

… They f■■■■■.

-

She was nineteen and pregnant and alone.

-

He... was such a little thing, so pink and vulnerable it made her want to cry. She pulled him closer, smiling more widely than ever before.

Her baby took her breath away. Like a king.

Her king.

-

She tried to raise him as well as her late father raised her. She gave him love, and an education and everything he needed or wanted. That day, he wanted a truck, and, of course, they went to the store across the street. The traffic light turned green, and they started walking, hand in hand. Her king hummed an off-tune song, and she smiled while taking out her purse with her free hand.

She dropped it.

“Oops,” she said, bending down to pick it up—

There was a loud noise, and she didn’t need to look up to know what was coming. She pushed her son away from the danger and closed her eyes tightly—

Pain.

The last thing she heard was her little child’s small, shaking voice calling out her name. She hoped he would be okay.

-

Just as some thought, death was a mindless void. She couldn’t move, but then again, she wasn’t sure she had a body to do it.

-

She’d been there a long time. All the quiet was making her go crazy.

-

...She missed her son.

-

Suddenly, there was a light, and someone was touching her. Her senses were on overdrive, and she would have cried if she cared even a little bit. She knew what was happening, had been hoping for it.

“He’s a beautiful baby. We’ll call him—”

She opened her eyes, and stared, making no noise, at the shape of what was probably her mother. She pitied her, having a child who was not really a child, a son who was not really one. The mother hesitates a bit, but then shakes her head and finishes the sentence.

“—Shuichi.”

 

* * *

 

Shuichi Saihara was a weirdo, Kokichi ruthlessly decided.

She kept looking at him with that… strangeness in her eyes—well, not eyes, because he couldn’t see them under that ugly hat, but you know what he meant—every ten seconds. It was getting on his nerves!

But that wasn’t all! Somehow, she knew when he was lying. Certainly, she feigned ignorance and went along with him, but Kokichi knew she knew, and she knew he knew she knew she knew when he was lying. But the worst thing, the thing he couldn’t even explain, was she kept trying to befriend him, get him out of his comfort bubble despite his continuous rude refusals.

“Let’s go to a, uh, park. Yeah,” she stammered, looking at everywhere but him.

She wasn’t very subtle.

“Sure, Saihara-chan!” he chirped, bouncing on his toes. “I always love to spend time with you!” A lie. This one was clear, too, because last time they talked, Kokichi, in a lapse of judgment, snapped and told her the exact opposite.

She blinked, then smiled, and Kokichi carefully kept his face blank. See? Weird. Nobody smiled like that to him anymore.

He took her hand and dragged her to a nearby restaurant. He tricked her into inviting him and asked the most expensive plate on the menu, three times, and ate nothing. See if she would leave him alone.

 

* * *

 

Despite Kokichi’s most expressive wishes, the hanging out thing became a routine. Saihara-chan had vilely tried to bribe him into going to her house, telling him he could do anything he wanted with her things. He almost refused, but then, as was surely her plan, it started to rain, and Saihara-chan shamelessly took his hand and dragged him off to her house.

“Oh? Shuichi, you have finally made a friend!” her uncle boomed when he noticed she wasn’t alone. He was amazingly obnoxious, even more his niece, and Kokichi made sure to get as much water as he could on the hall. The man didn’t seem to notice, but going by the way his smile became more pinched, he did. “I’m Saiki. I hope you take care of my good-for-nothing nephew!” Kokichi nodded earnestly, stars shining in his eyes, and got slapped in the back for the trouble.

Saihara-chan’s smile became strained as Shiki turned to leave.

After a beat of silence, Kokichi said, “hey, let’s go to your room!” partly to distract her, and partly because he was anxious to take her up on her promise.

-

Three hours—and an experience he will talk about never—later, it was raining even more fiercely than before. Great.

Kokichi was already plotting his escape; he had to outrun her, a difficult feat, as he had checked her speed firsthand, so he had to take the lift and close the door before she could enter and then—

“Well,” Saihara-chan began, smiling brightly, “it looks like you’ll have to stay the night.”

She glanced at him and, as if predicting his intentions of fleeing, grabbed his hand tightly. Kokichi whined like there wasn’t a tomorrow—”a-are you going to eat me, Saihara-chan? Is that w-why I’m here? Help! HELMMMMmmmpph!"—, but he didn’t try to shake her off.

-

After a long time discussing it, they ended up binge-watching the entire Lord of the Rings saga. Well, more precisely, he ended up doing it, because Saihara-chan, that lazy ass, fell asleep during the second half of the first movie.

Of course, she will wake up with her face full of very embarrassing doodles that hopefully will make his uncle lecture her about her ways of life, but that was another, completely unrelated, matter.

(He yawned.)

As the credits of the third movie rolled through the screen, Kokichi was in a dilemma: what should he do to make Saihara-chan regret inviting him? Maybe he should steal that ugly cap of hers—that will teach her not to fall asleep while being with the Ultimate Supreme Leader.

(He yawned again.)

...He was getting sleepy, Kokichi reluctantly noticed, yawning for the third time. All your fault, he thought sourly, glaring at Saihara-chan.

Mmmmmm…! Now that he thought of it, maybe he should sleep in her lap instead—it will make her feel very awkward when she woke up, and she looked comfy. Like, really, really comfy.

Heh.

“Yeah,” he muttered, cackling, as he buried his face in Saihara-chan’s legs, “she totally is.”

-

When he woke up, there were soft hands running through his hair, and eyes looking at him with — something… that tied his stomach into knots.

 

* * *

 

“Happy birthday, Kokichi!” Saihara-chan carelessly said one day, as if she could know that information. He hadn’t told anybody about it—not even his caretakers knew—so he was a little, what’s the word... creeped out.

His face was blank, and his glance kept darting between her beaming face and the packet she was trying to make him take. “Hey, Saihara-chan, have you been stalking me?” he asked with no tone.

She tilted her head, confused, and kept forcing the packet upon him. “No? Why do you ask?” He didn’t answer. After a beat of silence, she grinned and, in a show of lack of patience, opened the packet herself. “Anyways! You always wear those ragged clothes.” Was that concern in her voice? More weirdness, he thought absentmindedly, “so I made you a scarf!” She proudly showed him the object in question and it was…

“W-woah…” It left his mouth before he could stop it. Well, might as well do the whole performance. “I-it’s hideous!” His eyes watered, threatening to spill not-entirely-fake tears. “I-I can’t believe you know me so b-badly!”

Saihara-chan just smiled knowingly and offered him the scarf once again. He snatched it and left, not wanting to see her ugly face anymore.

(He wore the scarf every day after that, and tried to pretend he didn’t notice Saihara-chan’s enormous dumb grin.)

 

* * *

 

Saihara-chan was a pain in the ass, Kokichi regretfully thought as he covered her with a blanket. However, that motion was stopped, for the third time, by someone grabbing his wrist.

“‘Kichi…” she muttered, looking at him with half-lidded eyes. “I’m very glad you’re here.”

She was sick. And delirious. Very delirious.

“Sleep, Saihara-chan,” he whispered, so softly he frightened himself. After a pause, he continued: “That way you’ll get better and I won’t have to take care of your ugly face anymore.”

She, without missing a beat, patted her bed and answered with—

“Sleep with me...?”

—and it was in that moment that he regretted every decision that contributed to him coming to take care of her.

(He wouldn’t have come, you see, but she phoned him and told him her uncle was not home and that Kokichi was the person she trusted the most.

He got a little scared: she was clearly delirious, very delirious.)

“No,” Kokichi told her, face blank.

Saihara-chan pouted. “Awww...” She seemed to drop the topic, but, as always, fate destroyed Kokichi’s hopes mercilessly. “Then, at least stay with me until I fall asleep, please?” She even grabbed his hand—again—to give more effect. Her grip was clammy and sweaty and gross. He didn’t shake her off.

He looked at his nails. “No,” he said, but, this time, it was a lie.

She grinned happily and stared at him, eyes a bit unfocused. (He tried not to squirm in his chair.) Her grin morphed into a little smile, and, as her eyelids fluttered to a close, she whispered, “I love you a lot, y’know?”

...Very delirious.

(That, however, didn’t stop his traitorous face from reddening.)

 

* * *

 

… Why is his head throbb—Oh, that’s right.

The van.

(He was going to buy Saihara-chan a birthday gift but—

It was coming fastfastfast and—

Suddenly, he couldn’t move. His only thought, repeating itself in his head over and over and over, was:

Was this how she felt when—? No, no, don’t think about that.)

Honestly, Kokichi had thought he was going to die (like—) so the first thing he does is sigh with relief, the realest feeling he has expressed in a long, long time.

“...Kokichi?” a voice rasps, and he is now very aware he’s not alone in the room.

He opens his eyes.

Saihara-chan is there, sitting next to his bed. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days, her cap is missing, her hair is a mess and—

...There are tear tracks.

She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it, as if she can’t find the right words to do so. Her lips tremble, she deviates her eyes. She looks ready to cry.

(Nobody should cry for him.)

Instead, she envelops him in a tight hug, carefully not touching his injuries. Kokichi hugs back very slowly, as if she were an illusion that would disappear.

“I’m _so_  glad you didn’t…” she whispers, her chin on the top of his head. His chest feels warm.

Saihara-chan starts to shake — Oh God now she’s sobbing what does he do.

“I—” He tries to think of something to comfort her, but words don’t come to him. Instead, he buries his face in her shoulder, hoping to transmit the message. Thanks.

A hand gently caresses his hair, and its owner whispers thousands of shaky “I love you”s into his ear until he falls asleep again.

(“Nobody will cry if you die,” they said.)

(They were wrong.)

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Join my campaign at https://campbskirt.tumblr.com/


End file.
